Kill the Messenger - Homicide by Abuse - Travesty (WA-DOH)
Abuse, neglect and exploitation of older people has become endemic. Elder abuse manifests to a greater or lesser degree in persons of a certain class or living in a particular location. It crosses all geographic, socioeconomic, racial and ethnic groups. Family members comprise the majority of elder abusers.
Elder abuse includes: physical assault (force that results in physical pain or injury); humiliation (threats, harassment, and intimidation); neglect (confinement or restraint either intentionally or unintentionally); and, financial exploitation (misuse or withholding resources for personal advantage). Financial exploitation and emotional abuse rank as the most commonly reported.
[Elder Abuse - Introduction]
Council House directors and their management staff have committed many federal offenses against residents that include: filing frivolous lawsuits; suborning senior citizens; physically and psychologically abusing them; misappropriating federal funds; falsifying documents; promoting thuggery; procuring unlawful evictions; denying due process of law; and practicing search and seizure.
Federal, state, and municipal authorities hold a mandate to prosecute cases of elder abuse and neglect of disabled people. By law, they must work collaboratively with police, social service agencies, and medical professionals to improve referral, investigation, and, ultimately, prosecute cases of abuse and neglect of elderly people yet they fail to do so. Instead, they have granted impunity to Council House directors and managers. [Impunity]
Government oversight authorities have increasingly employed willful blindness to evade their statutory duties to investigate reports of elder abuse. This has resulted in at least two cases of alleged homicide abuse at Council House, Seattle.
Stephen A. Mitchell (41), Audrey F. Dunbar (35), Katrina M. Ramsburg (22), and a team of violent enforcers employed as administrators at Council House, Seattle, insinuated themselves as surrogate parents into the lifestyles of elders on the unwarranted assumption that independently-living, elderly people could not look after themselves. Once they had gained their victims’ confidence they terrorized them for financial gain.
Mary Selecky, Secretary, Washington Department of Health (DOH) and other DOH officials received several complaints of elder abuse. Selecky sent Donald Painter, an investigator, to interview Mitchell, Dunbar, and Ramsburg. The complaint addressed abusive behavior and fraudulent credentialing.
Painter conducted a self-serving investigation which effectively ended in a finding of no probable cause. He filed false and misleading reports which started a chain of inter-agency dereliction and collusion.
Mitchell used the fraudulent reports as a premise to persuade US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to drop their ongoing investigation of Council House. Federal officials used the bogus Painter findings to evade their responsibilities which resulted in a monumental escalation of elder abuse at Council House.
Several agencies had notice of elder abuse prior to the death of Jackie Rose Nations (59†) and Naftali Nathan Vilensky (72†), both vulnerable adults. DOH did nothing until after Nations committed suicide. Vilensky died six months later from neglect.
Misappropriation
People entering their third age or twilight years infrequently have partners with whom to discuss how to handle their financial affairs. Many of them do not have previous experience. They approach their problems in a variety of ways. Some have long-term health care insurance and preserve their assets for the next generation. Others use their assets until they run out and then rely upon Medicaid.
Some family members coerce elders to transfer their assets to them and persuade them to rely upon Medicaid. This manipulation effectively accelerates and increases the amount of their potential inheritance.
People regularly enter assisted living conditions as a last resort before a nursing home. To avoid that type of accommodation, some of them talk managers of independent living facilities into accepting them. Attorneys bribe managers in return for leases so that they can warehouse "nuisance" clients and "manage" their assets. [Last Cruel Days. Homicide?]
Council House, Seattle opted out of providing assisted living facilities several years ago to avoid the expense of alterations to the building. Consequently, it remains ineligible to house vulnerable adults yet does so on a regular basis. During the past five years, Council House has granted leases to about ten ineligible tenants. Two of them have died from alleged homicide by abuse and the others have suffered elder abuse on a regular basis.
Homicide by Abuse
Audrey F. Dunbar and Sarah V. Barrie removed Ernie Nations from a nursing home and Jackie Nations from her home, then warehoused them at Council House evidently to save nursing home fees. They used Ernie for housing eligibility in order to house Jackie so that they could rip off the real estate and the taxpayer.
[Who Killed Jackie Nations?] [Kill the Messenger #1 - Homicide by Abuse]
Dunbar and her extended family chose the Council House option to the detriment of her grandfather and aunt - both legally defined as vulnerable adults and now deceased. In Washington, "vulnerable adults" means people who do not have the functional, mental, or physical ability to care for themselves. [Vulnerable Adults]
If Council House accepts a tenant who can live independently but needs some assistance, then the law draws a fine line between partial inability to provide for oneself and vulnerability. Disabled tenants can hire aides and continue to live in the facility; however, the disabilities suffered by Ernie and Jackie Nations far exceeded the legal limitations before Mark T. Mullen, Mitchell, and Dunbar granted them a lease.
Nations' death probably classifies as homicide by abuse - a class A felony - due to her status as a vulnerable adult and unlawful tenant by virtue of disability and age. She had no help from social services. Dunbar and her extended family misappropriated her real estate and used her and her father as a means to obtain government funds. Dunbar then abused them.
Government Dereliction
Senator Patty Murray and Congressman Jim McDermott (his mother Roseanna lived at Council House) knew about a string of other cases of elder abuse for eight years. However, they both followed laissez faire policies. Neither of them bothered to investigate complaints independently. Instead, they believed what HUD told them without question, then wrote a plethora of self-serving letters that amounted to nothing more than a cover up.
HUD-Seattle (and their agent Bremerton Housing Authority (BHA)) has a long history of covering up complaints and silently withholding documents. They turned a blind eye to avoid facing issues which effectively condoned homicide by abuse. Officials used any excuse to evade proper oversight and appropriated statements by other agencies without verifying or validating them to duck their responsibility. In this case, they used false Department of Health reports without fact-checking them - something this reporter did assiduously by obtaining and perusing hundreds of public records. [Agency Accountability]
Bogus Investigation
Ten days after Jackie Rose Nations committed suicide (17 Sep 00) and six months before the alleged homicide by abuse of Naftali Nathan Vilensky (06 Apr 01), Mary Selecky, Secretary, Washington Department of Health (DOH), sent Donald Painter, an investigator (28 Sep 00), to interview Mitchell and other administrators. Ostensibly, Painter had instructions to inquire into complaints of elder abuse and fraudulent credentialing by Council House managers. Painter had graduated six months before with a promotion from "intraining" to "trial service".
In his report, Painter claimed to have interviewed Mullen, Mitchell, Ramsburg, and Dunbar separately. Public records show that Painter only interviewed Ramsburg (28 Sep 00) although he charged four interviews to his time report. He then wrote one report and printed it four times changing only the name of the person he claimed to have interviewed. His report did not mention the Nations suicide.
The record shows that he also spoke with Mitchell on the telephone but did not interview him or address the complaints. Instead, Painter asked Mitchell administrative questions about copies of documents. Mitchell responded that HUD had similar complaints on file. This placed on record that HUD had full cognizance of the issues at that time although they did not respond to them.
Painter did not interview the complainants or witnesses and apparently had no intention of doing so. The interview with Ramsburg that he recorded and then duplicated for the other three people did not comply with any of the forensic rules mandated by his department.
The report shows that Ramsburg denied performing any counseling work at Council House although records from other sources show that she acted as a social worker and counseled tenants on many occasions often to their detriment. [Contractor’s Daughter]
Ramsburg then switched roles and told Painter that she worked as a service coordinator - a job for which HUD mandates qualifications and geriatric experience that she, at the age of twenty-two who had graduated one month before, did not possess. [Service Coordinators]
The interview went on to stipulate that HUD funded Council House as low income housing and that people on a low fixed income receive subsistence to help pay their rent and must function independently. Painter and Ramsburg agreed that Council House did not provide assisted care. Ramsburg stipulated that if a resident becomes dependent then she made arrangements to get that person moved to an assisted care facility by working with a case worker or family members - a statement that belies reality.
Ramsburg then claimed that she assisted "clients" (although she claimed not to have any) to get mental health and other types of counseling as needed. She said that neither she nor Dunbar, Mullen, or Mitchell, provided any type of counseling, despite Mitchell's many claims that he worked for Council House as both social worker and service coordinator for more than ten years - both positions that required qualifications and experience that he does not possess.
Painter would have learned the truth if he had followed procedures and interviewed the complainant and witnesses. Instead, he became the perhaps unsuspecting dupe in a tragicomedy choreographed by Mitchell, Dunbar, and Ramsburg that covered up the death of Nations and preceded the death of Vilensky.
If Painter had checked with Idaho authorities he would have found that Mitchell never held a social worker’s license in that state as he claimed. He registered for a six-month permit that would allow him to work in a probationary capacity as an intern or assistant in Idaho - he only had to pay the fee and sign his name, nothing more.
Mitchell retroactively added that document as a qualification to his resume to give the impression that he had experience necessary to practice as a social worker in Washington. HUD, Council House, and Painter fell for his scam and HUD has shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money as a consequence.
Painter's employer (ISU), requires investigators to make inquiries in an independent, timely, impartial manner with objectivity and within the highest ethical standards using appropriate techniques. ISU expects them to apply a full range of investigative techniques and to: hold interviews with complainants, respondents, and witnesses; obtain statements or affidavits; gather and preserve documentary and physical evidence; and, develop case files.
Investigators then assist lawyers in the preparation of legal documents and testify at hearings and trial. They must: prepare objective and factual reports on the result of investigations using professionally acceptable language and terminology then prepare all documentary and physical evidence to support administrative or civil action.
Painter disregarded virtually all the required criteria then arranged for his office to send a letter stating that the "complaint did not reveal sufficient evidence to pursue further action against the above named individuals". Painter neither interviewed the complainant or witnesses nor asked for copies of documented evidence - he conducted a complete whitewash then charged $432.00 staff time to his docket. Mitchell used that "investigation" to trumpet to tenants, government departments, and media that the state had investigated him and exonerated him of all complaints - a bold, outrageous lie. [Thespian Liar]
Painter submitted a report that contained serious anomalies which indicated a lack of integrity and prompted a background check on him. Inquiries disclosed that Painter had previously committed acts of gross misconduct and willfully violated published agency policy.
Public servants have a duty to uphold integrity and to use state resources wisely. Those criteria called into question his credibility as an investigator and his violation of the public trust. He neglected his duty to abide by a standard of conduct befitting his position as a supervisor and as a state employee by violating policies, rules, and regulations.
To a reasonable person, dismissal does not seem too severe a penalty for a public employee using a state owned vehicle for personal use; driving to dinner and drinking at a restaurant; driving to two taverns and drinking; driving a state car home after numerous drinks; failing to stop at the scene of an accident; neglecting to report that accident; knowingly ignoring law enforcement attempts to contact him; and, lying to investigating officers.
Painter argued that his previous managers and supervisors periodically used state vehicles to attend social events and consumed alcohol before driving home. That taking all the facts into consideration and his alcoholism the department should not dismiss him.
Painter left his office (24 Nov 93) at 4:00 pm in a state vehicle bearing private license plates. He visited three licensed premises before he had an accident more than eight hours later. He failed to stop. The state patrol investigated the accident and found a private license plate assigned to the vehicle at the scene.
About two hours later, they found the vehicle in front of Painter's house with the door unlocked and a briefcase containing business cards, checkbook, and a loaded handgun on the floor. The officers rang the bell and knocked on the door and windows but Painter did not respond although he later admitted that he had heard them. By that, Painter obstructed the investigation.
Repairs to the state vehicle cost $2,124.07 and to the other vehicle about $500.00. Painter later reimbursed those costs. Incredibly, after Painter’s drunken escapade his superiors increased his supervisory responsibility which required increased use of a state vehicle!
Painter later admitted to gross misconduct by: driving a state vehicle while under the influence of alcohol; leaving the scene of an accident; failing to respond to law enforcement; and, misleading officers. Did a history of irresponsibility repeat itself when he investigated Council House? Probably.
DOH offered Painter a position as trainee health care investigator (16 Mar 99) for a twelve-month probationary period before promotion to permanent status. Six months later he interviewed Ramsburg, apparently with the same lack of integrity that got him fired previously. He found no probable cause to proceed without a shred of evidence to support that finding.
Mitchell's trumpeting of state exoneration, instead of prompting HUD and HUD/OIG officials to obtain records and validate his claims, persuaded them to accept what Painter said without question. HUD then used the propaganda to extricate itself from the quagmire that it had created for itself through willful neglect and laissez faire policies.
HUD and HUD/OIG, in consort, relied entirely on Painter's arbitrary finding to exonerate Mitchell, Mullen, Dunbar, and Ramsburg for filing false credentials and operating a HUD-funded facility in a way that severely abused elderly people for their own financial benefit. HUD, City of Seattle, and King County have still not investigated myriad elder abuse complaints although they have known about them for several years and continue to ignore new complaints.
Robert Stettner (HUD/OIG) received complaints about elder abuse. Instead of investigating them, he colluded with Renee Greenman, a HUD official responsible for much of the dereliction and a subsequent cover up. Stettner exhibited a breach of professional ethics as an auditor. He accepted without reservation or investigation an internal memorandum (based upon Painter’s fictitious no probable cause finding) from Gregory Scarr, a colleague of Greenman, as conclusive evidence and closed the case.
Scarr claimed that Painter "found no evidence of wrong doing". This prompted HUD and BHA virtually to ignore all complaints and to withhold public records from that day forward. That decision, and the unconstitutional orders of Judge James A. Doerty, have since frustrated investigation of Council House for almost five years. It has resulted in untold elder abuse, probable homicide, and misappropriation of more taxpayer money.
In response to an inquiry by Senator Slade Gorton, Robert Santos, former Secretary's Representative, HUD-Seattle, claimed that State of Washington investigated the Council House service coordinator and conferred with Donald Painter then accepted that his investigation into the issues resulted in no findings. Santos and HUD/OIG officials used Painter's statement to close several pending investigations, arbitrarily.
HUD officials completely ignored the fact that federal regulations for service coordinators bear no relation to those for a state mental health counselor. Santos extricated himself from a situation where his agency had paid out probably hundreds of thousands of dollars over a fifteen-year period to Council House to support two out-of-work actors, totally unqualified under HUD regulations.
None of the agencies have conducted an investigation in accordance with forensic criteria despite complaints by dozens of elderly tenants. Mitchell's statements to media and a variety of agencies about repeated investigations and subsequent exoneration amount to nothing more than pathological lying based upon a sham investigation by Painter.
Painter's opinion provided the means for HUD and Council House directors to declare exculpation. Judge James A. Doerty jumped at the chance to place Mitchell's statements into evidence. He issued prior restraint orders under the guise of antiharassment orders to scotch any further investigation. Doerty later jailed the author for contempt for continuing to exercise his constitutional right to freedom of expression by writing about Council House. Washington Supreme Court recently (30 Mar 06) reversed Doerty’s prior restraint which permits renewed exposure of the ongoing abuse at Council House. [Supreme Court Decision #2]
Did HUD dereliction indirectly cause the death of Jackie Nations? Maybe, maybe not. It has certainly increased the incidence of elder abuse at Council House by encouraging Mitchell and Dunbar to ratchet up their coercion of elderly people. HUD, State of Washington, City of Seattle, and Washington courts have effectively granted Mitchell and his thugs a license to kill with impunity. [Impunity]
Agency officials, fully aware of the circumstances, do nothing while Council House directors and managers continue their monstrous abuse. Several serious cases of elder abuse occurred last year (2005), one of them racially motivated. Two of those victims suffer from serious illnesses and the trauma could result in premature death. Recently, Mitchell physically assaulted a woman in a wheelchair and Dunbar has increased her verbal assaults. Their Kapos continue to harass and intimidate Council House tenants.
[Nmesis]
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